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I hate your fucking guts. Something about "cut off Netscape's air supply".

I have not used a Microsoft product since 2000. Nothing, nada.

I have converted more desktops to Linux since 2007 than you sold licenses for Windows ME.

I have converted one school district to Linux. Now there are several more school districts looking at that conversion: lower equipment costs (WinXP to Linux, same equipment), lower (zero) license costs, lower tech support costs, near zero malware remediation costs,...

I hope to live long enough to see you in Chapter 7. Given your track record in recent years, I may get to see it.FOAD!

Given Microsoft's propensity to undermine any potential conversion to open source software by big government, such as by: going over the head of proposers; spreading FUD about the proposer; getting proposers fired; paying people with influence (like legislators and regulators) to get the proposal blocked; subverting standards processes; and other monopolistic practices... does anyone but me think that Microsoft might try the same things here?

Given that the dollar amounts at stake are so large and the prestige of an open source win and the damage to Microsoft, does anyone also speculate that Microsoft might go so far as to have Obama, McNealy, and others killed to prevent it from happening?

There are lots and lots of opportunities to "give back" using one's technical skills. There is everything from Linux User Groups (LUGs) Install fest assistance; open-source projects of all kinds doing programming, documentation, testing, and other activities; developing software and/or IT infrastructure for non-profits, NGOs and QGOs.

I have been involved in this kind of thing for a number of years. In that time I've had mostly good experiences. There have been a few occasions where I felt compelled to withdraw my support from some organizations when, after working with them for a while, I came to believe that what they purported to be or do was not the case, that in whole or in part their existence was based on tax-avoidance schemes or to create sinecure(s) for the operators of the non-profit rather than provide a real cost effective service to their claimed constituency.

In one case, I came to believe that I was personally at risk if there was an IRS compliance audit because I could be seen to have sufficient information about the organization and operation to be complicit in its bad faith dealing. I left them as quickly as I discovered what I believed to be bad behavior. They had me fooled for quite a while in some cases because they talked a good game, had public and local press support: in effect very good self promotion for unquestionably good causes, were they on the up and up. In all cases they had never undergone a critical outside examination of their financials and operations.

Since that point, I have been very cautious about what kinds of organizations I've been willing to work with. Though I still work with some small non-profits that I've had relationships with for years, I mostly turn away requests from these types of organizations because my experience suggests that a disproportionate number are something other than what they purport to be or that their expense ratios far outweigh the good they purport to do. I now confine my volunteer work to QGOs, such as state chartered volunteer fire departments. The regulatory oversight is better, the paid professionals are better at what they do and the financial controls are very public.

The cancerous Mono has spread its tentacles further into the GNOME Desktop environment which is present on the GNOME live CD, to the extent that removing mono-core results in the removal of Evolution as well, the default mail program.

In effect, if you remove the package mono-core Evolution and a number of other packages are broken.

Now we begin to see what the Novell-Microsoft deal is really about: Contaminate Gnome with patented technology, then sue other distributions that depend on mono."

FiReaNGeL writes "Between 50 and 90 percent of the commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in the United States have been disappearing, a problem named Colony Collapse Disorder. Few, if any, dead bees are found around the hive. The disorder is making it difficult for U.S. commercial beekeepers to pollinate crops. About a quarter of beekeeping operations were affected by CCD during the 2006-2007 winter alone. Recently, scientists have found a probable cause : a virus. "Our extensive study suggests that the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) may be a potential cause of Colony Collapse Disorder" said scientists from Columbia University. "Our next step is to ascertain whether this virus, alone or in concert with other factors such as microbes, toxins and stressors, can induce CCD in healthy bees". CCD is a puzzling phenomenon occurring in the United States in which all adult bees disappear from the hive, leaving the honey and pollen behind."Link to Original Source

narramissic writes "In a brief filed Thursday with the FCC, the DOJ warned against imposing net neutrality regulations on broadband providers, saying that net neutrality rules could 'inefficiently skew investment, delay innovation, and diminish consumer welfare' and could also result in increased fees to all broadband users. 'Free market competition, unfettered by unnecessary governmental regulatory restraints, is the best way to foster innovation and development of the Internet,' the DOJ said."Link to Original Source

thefickler (1030556) writes "Known for having a media director that obsessively stalks critics, Overstock.com's IP address range has now been banned from editing on Wikipedia. Longtime Wikipedia staffer, David Gerard, posted this on the Administrators' Noticeboard Tuesday afternoon:
"I've just blocked 65.116.112.0/21, which is an IP range (a) owned by Overstock.com (b) widely used by them for spamming, COI editing and attempted intimidation of administrators dealing with them. I strongly suggest against unblocking this range under any circumstances""

Bomarc writes "From KOMO TV website, an article about how Gregory Thomas Kopiloff used Limewire, Soulseek and other "peer-to-peer" file-sharing programs to troll other computers for financial information, which he used to open credit cards for an online shopping spree, according to a four-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court on Thursday.

The news article isn't big on details, but it does outline the risks with "peer-to-peer" file-sharing programs. Carried by the By Associated Press"Link to Original Source

thornomad writes "I was saddened (though not surprised) to read that the Justice Department opposes net neutrality saying that it could "hamper development of the internet". While it may seem counter-intuitive to me, they argue that allowing ISPs to provide different levels of service/speed for different content will benefit consumers. They did promise to "continue to monitor and enforce any anticompetitive conduct to ensure a competitive broadband marketplace" — not that anyone was worried about that."Link to Original Source

netbuzz writes "This time it's a Philadelphia family having to watch smoke billow from the front of their home after another Verizon FiOS tech drills into another electrical wire. The really bad PR news for Verizon? The homeowner happens to be a business reporter for Associated Press. But, hey, at least there was some good news, too, this time: The reporter had very nice things to say about FiOS... aside from the installation.

Christopher Blanc writes "Largely because of the mobile phone boom in developing countries, telephone service has quadrupled in the past decade to 4 billion lines worldwide, according to a report Tuesday from the U.N. telecommunications agency. The International Telecommunications Union counts 1.27 billion fixed lines and 2.68 billion mobile accounts. 61 percent of the world's mobile subscribers are in developing countries, the ITU said.